The Debt Collectors War

Chapter 83

Ellie tapped her comm, and explained what she’d learned to the operations centre as quickly as she could. It wasn’t that quickly. It took several minutes, once she’d also given the reasons why she was willing to consider believing Terry.

When she was done, she said, “I need more information to decide whether this is true. I need everything we have on the kid, and I need to check how complete that information is, as well. Whether this kid’s life has been searched properly at the Shanghai end, mainly, and whether we can profile him properly.”

There was a pause, then the voice on the comm said there might be a problem.

“Of course,” Ellie said, a little bitterly. “What problem?”

“We don’t have much information,” the operations centre said. “And the investigations in Shanghai were fairly… minimal.”

“I imagine,” Ellie said. “How much do we know?”

“Very little, I’m afraid.”

“Why not?” Ellie said. “For fuck’s sake. At this point in this op, why don’t we know anything?”

“They couldn’t search thoroughly, ma’am. He had his tablet with him, and he didn’t use the cloud for much.”

“Oh,” Ellie said. “So, what, they just didn’t bother?”

“As I said, ma’am, not really. Not thoroughly.”

“Fuck,” Ellie said, annoyed. “So basically, we don’t know anything about him at all?”

“Not really.”

“Not who he associates with? Not if he’s had any contact with the militia here?”

“I’m just looking now. He hasn’t made contact through his primary mail and social accounts…”

“Which doesn’t mean much,” Ellie said.

“No.”

“Has someone searched his bedroom at home? As in, gone and actually looked to see what logos are on his clothes, and what media channels he watches?”

There was another slight pause, Ellie assumed as the operations centre checked, then the voice said, “He has his own apartment, apparently.”

“Oh,” Ellie said, then surprised, “What?”

“He has his own apartment.”

“Yeah, of course he has. But has it been searched?”

“Not well. Again, not thoroughly. Not to collect that kind of data.”

“Because of his family?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck,” Ellie said. “That’s great. Thank you. Tell whoever decided that, thank you a fuck of a lot.”

“The parents decided it.”

“Well they might just have killed their kid.”

There was a silence. An awkward, uncomfortable silence. Ellie took a slow breath, then said, “Don’t actually tell them that part.”

“No, ma’am.”

“It won’t help anything to repeat that,” Ellie said, even though the conversation was obviously being recorded and reported to very senior corporate officials. It didn’t matter to her especially if the parents knew what she thought, but she felt a little sorry for them, since it wasn’t really their fault their kid had gone bad, or that Naomi had been taken as a hostage, either. There was no real need to upset the parents, especially when their cooperation might be useful to help get Naomi back.

“Could someone contact the parents,” Ellie said. “And try and explain to them how serious this is. Explain that I need to know as much as possible right now, so I can decide whether the militia I’m with are telling me the truth.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Do that, explain that, and then have the kid’s life in Shanghai pulled apart. Take off the protection his family gives him. Check everything, but especially check for political involvement, for attendances at meetings or rallies, for paper books hidden around his house, things like that.”

“Of course.”

“Try and see if this makes sense. Find out if there’s anything in his life to confirm what I’m being told.”

“We will.”

“And tell the parents this is very important. I need to know this. I need to know whether he’s sympathetic to these people, or if this is utter bullshit and they militia are still holding him somewhere else. I need to know that now.”

“We’re making contact right now,” the operations centre said. “We’ll be checking very soon, and get back to you as quickly as possible.”

“Thank you,” Ellie said, and tapped her earpiece to break the connection.

Terry was still watching her. “It’s true,” he said. “What I told you about the boy was true.”

Ellie shrugged. “I’m just doing my job.”

Terry nodded.